¤ Wiccan Club ¤

[Aniki]

Actually there is.. More historical than anything else.

[Welcome to Whysperia]

Speaking of Christianity..
(Yes, thats my 'on-topic' bit.. XD)

I am a Christian, but I believe in a lot of the Wiccan/Pagan beliefs. As in, I use tarot cards and the like, and sometimes do spells of sorts. Anyone have any advice for a beginner?

[Raven_Wolf]

That's not what I read. The basics of Wicca existed long before Christianity, but there is no evidence because of the serious need for secrecy before freedom of religion began

[Commander Ragdoll]

Being intolerant towards Christians will change nothing. It only gives them more fuel for their fire. :/ There's no scientific proof that our gods/goddesses exist either, so keep that in mind.

I simply disagree with their moral views. They believe that homosexuals should burn in hell: 1 Corinthians 6:9, and that's why I shied away from sticking to being a Christian. I don't think that this is a discussion over whether their god or the Divine exists, but their laws instead.

[Commander Ragdoll]

I thought that Gardnerian Wicca was a cult of some sort created by Gerald Gardner. Somewhere in the beginning of the Christian Bible, it says that witches and Pagans shouldn't practice magick and spells, and I do believe that their bible was written more than 50 years ago. That proves that Wicca is as old or older than the Christian religion.

• “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live” (Exodus 22:18)
• “When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable way of the nations there. Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord, and because of these detestable practices the Lord your God will drive those nations before you. You must be blameless before the Lord your God. The nations you will dispossess listen to those who practice sorcery or divination. But as for you, the Lord has not permitted you to do so” (Deuteronomy 18:9-14)

Please tell me if I'm wrong, because I am very new to Wicca and I'm not a full witch by a long shot.

[Commander Ragdoll]

Ah, but this is the new Wicca. You are right, but there were different forms of beliefs very similar to Wicca that involved witchcraft, and Wicca is a NeoPagan spirituality, a modern form of the old Pagan religions that people obviously still follow today.

[andromeda;;]

I simply disagree with their moral views. They believe that homosexuals should burn in hell: 1 Corinthians 6:9, and that's why I shied away from sticking to being a Christian. I don't think that this is a discussion over whether their god or the Divine exists, but their laws instead.

I disagree with their moral code as well. That's why I'm not a Christian. But we can disagree without saying they are all horrible people who want to shove their religion upon the world, because that is not true. It's the same as them saying we're all Satan worshipping baby killers, isn't it? The latter is a little bit extreme in comparison, but hopefully you understand what I am trying to explain.

I included that last bit because Lady Kadence was saying there was no proof God or Jesus existed. I think (I don't know for certian; I live in the Bible Belt so some information I get is most likely biased) there is historical proof that Jesus was a man, but no scientific proof that he was son of Jehovah or what-have-you. Just like there is historical proof that people worshipped Zeus, Odin, Osiris, et cetera, but there isn't really scientific proof that they exist.

I'm not saying that that these gods don't exist. Many people have deep, personal experinces with all of these gods, including the Abrahamic god (the Bible says "Thou shalt have no other gods before me", not "There is only me" Of course this might show up somewhere else, but I'm not a Bible scholar).

Anyway, none of us have any right to say their god isn't legitimate just because we don't follow their god.

P.S. Forgive me for spelling/grammar errors; I just woke up.

[Raven_Wolf]

Gerald Gardener is the father of modern Wicca, yes. But he did not create it.

[Hawkstagspirit]

I have to agree with Commander about the age of Wicca. Since caveman times, people have feared, then worshiped, nature. They started to believe that they could predict ir change the future by doing specific things. They assigned faces to the forces of nature that they feared, and worshiped these new gods and goddesses. This is where paganism starts. Now, some tribe decides to group all these forces into two groups: male and female. God and Goddess. Lord and Lady. THIS is Wicca. When you have the most important, core elements of a religion, it IS the religion. If you strip Wicca down to the bare basics, you get Paganism, witchcraft, and duothieism (sp?). They had that. This is Wicca. No, not Garderian Wicca, but still Wicca. We have versions of Wicca (Animist gave a wonderful list a while back) that use traditions that came long before Gardner.

So sorry about any spelling errors.

[Aniki]

I have respect for all religions. I was born and raised in a Christian home. I know what I am talking about. You have correct information on Gerald Gardner but he isn’t Wicca. Wicca has been around longer than Christianity. Much longer. Like 200 years longer than it. Next time check all the facts.
No one truly created it. Different cultures and generations have created it as one. Paganism has been around since the first culture - the first people.